The Trump Administration’s Challenge to Mashpee Wampanoag Sovereignty

Peter d’Errico, a member of the Leverett (MA) Selectboard and a long time legal advocate for Native American rights, explains the latest federal affront to the sovereign rights of Native Nations.

In a September 2018 ruling, the Department of the Interior of the US Government claims the Native people who first welcomed the Pilgrims to the shores of Massachusetts in 1620 – the Mashpee Wampanoag – no longer have sovereign rights to even a tiny fraction of their former territory, their “reservation”.

The Mashpee Wampanoag currently occupy less than 1% of their original homeland in Massachusetts. That “land in trust” status has now been abrogated by the Trump Administration.

This ruling could affect the “land in trust” status of many Native Nations across the country. Which is why Native leaders joined the Mashpee Wampanoag to march on the U.S. Department of the Interior offices in Washington, D.C. on November 14th, 2018.